DIY with a coastal vibe

Oyster Shell & Spanish Moss Mini Tree

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I can share some of the Christmas crafts I started early (oops). I had high hopes of making some beautiful oyster shell Christmas trees, which is where this craft started. Then I got started, and realized I didn’t have enough of the shells I needed to accomplish this, changed my strategy, and ended up with something completely different… Such is life. Luckily, I still liked how this turned out, and it’s now part of my Christmas decor!

Oyster Shell & Spanish Moss Tree

What you’ll need:

Styrofoam cone

Faux Spanish moss

Oyster shells

Hot glue gun

Like I mentioned, I started this project thinking I’d cover the foam cone in oyster shells and call it a day. Unfortunately even the smaller shells I had were still kinda big to do this, or else curved — flat shells are the most ideal.

So, I went through my small oyster shell stores, got the flat ones out and glued the first one to the styrofoam cone with my hot glue gun.

That was the point I had my epiphany that my project was going to have to change… Gotta be agile! I glued the second shell on the cone, about a half inch from the first. Then I glued some Spanish moss around the shells to cover the green styrofoam, and fill the space where shells wouldn’t be glued.

Now I was thinking this doesn’t seem too bad.. I can work with this. I continued to glue a shell, then surround it with Spanish moss, until I made my way around the bottom of the cone.

I’m not gonna lie, this is messy — as are all crafts involving Spanish moss — and there’s no right or wrong method to do this. Just glue away as you please!

I continued attaching shells, then filling in with Spanish moss as I made my way up the cone. For the second layer, I tried to place the shells in between the ones below them.

For the top of the cone, I glued some Spanish moss to the very top of the cone first, to make sure that would be covered. Then I glued 3 shells to the cone, and filled in any spots with more Spanish moss. Since the styrofoam cone doesn’t come to a point, the top of the shells aren’t attached to anything, just the bottom of them, so you’ll need to be careful when gluing them.

Alright — now you’ve got an oyster shell and Spanish moss tree! I used scissors to trim any moss pieces that were sticking out really far, and made sure you couldn’t see the foam anywhere.

Then I just needed to find a place to put it! Initially I sat it on our mantle, next to a pumpkin because I made this in early November and still had my fall decor out. Now that it’s officially Christmastime, it’s sitting on the mantle with one of my burlap trees and a decoupaged tree.

I still want to try to make a tree completely out of oyster shells (when I find the right ones), but am happy with how this guy turned out, despite the last minute changes!